planet nomads

It’s been almost a year since Massively OP’s MJ first took a look at the survival sandbox Planet Nomads. How are things faring on this alien planet that she crashed down on? Are her chances for survival any better, or are the planet’s inhabitants even hungrier for a snack from space? Tune in live at 9:00 p.m. for a peek into the early access development of…

This week in MMO crowdfunding, Legends of Aria — which we’ll probably never stop accidentally calling Shards Online — began its alpha, introducing testers and founder pack players to the revitalized game. While gamers will still be able to roll their own “shards” and play their own way, Citadel Studios has expanded its scope and plans a much bigger map, improved combat, and official servers to bring the game in line with MMORPG gamer expectations.

Otherwise, lots of stuff was happening in the test world. We lost track of all of it, but we’ve done our best to sum things up for you here:

You can try out Shroud of the Avatar for free for most of May, so if you have the time and the curiosity, hey, give it a shot. Of course, it’s really a test of a great deal of what will make the game run under stress, but you don’t need to worry about that; the price is right.

Wow. Lots of stuff in there, and we haven’t even skipped down below to the list. Yes, there’s a list down below. There’s always a list. Let us know if something skipped test phases without us knowing in the comments, hmm?

Ever since Planet Nomads made an appearance in the survival game guide, Massively OP’s MJ has been eager to hop in. And today is the day! No longer able to wait until Early Access, she’s suiting up and ready to dive in and check out whatever alien planet she crash lands on. How long will she survive? Join us live at 9:00 p.m. for this first look at the alpha of…

That’s just given developer Craneballs more time to work on patches, chief among them the addition of camera shake, blood screen effects, door functionality, improved particle effects, instance fixes, weather-related cover, and a survival and crafting pass that sees stamina, nutrition and hydration decrease at faster rates.

MOP’s MJ Guthrie will be streaming the game for the first time tonight at 9 p.m. on our partnered Twitch channel, so drop by for a look!

Elite: Dangerous rolled out its Commanders 2.3 update, introducing what our own Justin dubbed “sitting in cockpits” — you won’t be walking in stations per se, but you will at least be able to roll up impressively detailed avatars and multi-crew your spaceships.

Late last night, Star Citizen published its 2017 development roadmap, suggesting that 3.0 will arrive this summer, though it’ll be less ambitious in scope than originally planned, as some of its features will be pushed to later in the year.

And congrats are due to Starfighter Inc., which pulled off a big Kickstarter win earlier this afternoon and takes home over $170,000.

As Massively OP is centered on the “massively” part of gaming, it makes sense that my first guide to survival games was focused on multiplayer titles. Similarly, The Survivalist will mostly (but not always!) concern itself with the multiplayer games in the survival genre. However, after researching this topic, I felt that not highlighting the single-player offerings would be a serious disservice to the genre. There are occasions when you want to test your survival mettle without the interference of other players; sometimes you just want to live or die on your own merits and not at the hands of someone elses decisions. Besides that, some of these titles — like Subnautica — offer an awesome premise you can’t get elsewhere.

Ready to survive on your own? Here’s a a taste of a number of games you can dive into when you want to scratch that survival itch in private.

This week in MMO crowdfunding, Star Citizen capped off a week of DirectX revelations and mega map explanations with a round of celebrations — for its fifth year of subscriptions. Folks who join the game’s dev subber program pick up a magazine, discounts, and extra test access; sub before April 17th while the promo is live, you get vending machine flair for your hangar. At least you’ll have cold beverages while you wait for the game, right? (Thanks, Cotic!)

Elsewhere in space MMOs, congrats are due to Planet Nomads, which was Kickstarted last year and is now plotting an early access launch for April 18th.

And in epic news for fans of the best video game class of all time, Project Gorgon rolled out the bard support skills for testing this week. Don’t think you’re just going to pick up a lute and start strumming, either: “As you advance in Bard skill, you will also need to improve other skills, including performance, vocabulary, and poetry appreciation.” Bring your thesaurus!

Meanwhile, ECO patched in some major upgrades to its economy, Starfighter is nearing half its goal with 20 days remaining (thanks Crow!), Ever, Jane’s beta picked up horseback riding features, Camelot Unchained danced with its own bot army, City of Titans previewed its core archetypes, SOTA nabbed a new newsletter layout, and The Exiled’s early access began its second season.

Read on for more on what’s up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week and the regular roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’ve got our eye on.

“After the 2+ years of caring, cuddling and upbringing, Planet Nomads has finally grown up tall enough to get out there and fight for its future,” studio Craneballs (best name ever) says, as the actual “survival” update has this week arrived in the game’s alpha, and the early access is now slated for April 18th.

So here’s a new one for the Make My MMO crowdfunding column: We have a game that’s actually vying for Patreon donations rather than campaigning on Kickstarter or Indiegogo. That game is Shadow’s Kiss, a vampire fantasy MMO. Developer Clockwork Throne says it’s using Patreon to fund production and reward backers.

Dragon of Legends has rejoined our list, having canceled its first Kickstarter and started over, asking for a much smaller amount (in fact, it’s already passed its base goal). Multiplayer sci-fi survival sandbox Planet Nomads finished its Kickstarter a winner too, pulling in almost $140,000. And while MOBA shooter Overpower didn’t quite make its funding goal on Kickstarter, its devs have announced it’ll head into early access on March 2nd.

This week in MMO crowdfunding news, former SOE/Daybreak CEO John Smedley revealed his new company, Pixelmage Games, and its first game, sandboxy OARPG Hero’s Song, whose Kickstarter is live now and will run until February 18th. In fact, it’s already added new pledge tiers to entice backers; a $25 pledge scores two copies of the $20 game at launch.